E-commerce giant Amazon.com is planning an 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center in the tiny village of North Randall, where the facility could support more than 1,200 jobs upon opening.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio -- An Amazon.com fulfillment center could bring more than 1,200 jobs to the long-ailing village of North Randall, in southeast Cuyahoga County.

Across the country, the e-commerce giant is disrupting the traditional retail business and contributing to shopping malls' struggles. In Northeast Ohio, though, Amazon is literally replacing them. The North Randall project, an 855,000-square-foot building, would occupy approximately 69 acres of the former Randall Park Mall site.

A rendering displayed at Thursday's Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority board meeting shows what the proposed Amazon.com fulfillment center in North Randall might look like.Port of Cleveland

The project popped up on the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority board's agenda on Thursday morning. The board approved a request to provide up to $123 million worth of bond financing for the project, which could open during the second half of 2018.

"This is part of our ever-growing network," Eric Murray, senior manager of economic development for Amazon, said during the meeting. "We're very excited about the opportunity to consider Northeast Ohio."

Seefried Industrial Properties, Inc., an Atlanta-based developer that has worked on other projects for Amazon, has a contract to buy the North Randall site, David Riefe, the company's senior vice president for the Midwest, said during Thursday's port board meeting. The properties belong to multiple owners today.

A site plan shows the location and orientation of a proposed Amazon.com fulfillment center in North Randall, on 69 acres of the former Randall Park Mall site.Port of Cleveland

The developer plans to raze the existing buildings - a shuttered Burlington Coat Factory store, a closed automotive-maintenance facility and a former department store occupied by Ohio Technical College's PowerSport Institute, which would relocate.

Seefried expects to construct a $177 million facility and lease it to Amazon, which has more than 70 such fulfillment centers across the country.

Murray said that North Randall is vying against other, out-of-town sites for the project, which would include 2,600 parking spaces, 64 truck docks and parking for 200 trailers.

Employees at the facility would earn "very competitive" salaries, Murray said, though he wouldn't provide numbers. The jobs would include healthcare, dental care, access to a 401(k) retirement-savings plan and other benefits, he added.

David Smith, North Randall's longtime mayor, expressed cautious optimism during an interview after Thursday's port board meeting. He stressed that the fulfillment-center deal is far from done.

"It's the biggest development, I think - the potential for the biggest development - since I've been in office," he said. "When the demolition of the mall site started, we anticipated having the opportunity to have this type of development. We're just hoping that it is completed."

The workforce at the Amazon facility would surpass North Randall's population of roughly 1,100 people. But the employment would be a fraction of the estimated 5,000 or so people who worked at the mall in its heyday.

Randall Park Mall closed in 2009. Bargain-focused developers Stuart Lichter and Chris Semarjian eventually acquired much of the property and started razing the central mall building in late 2014. They've been marketing the sprawling site, near Interstates 480 and 271, as an industrial park.

Smith said the village doesn't have cash to put into the Amazon deal. But the village could grant partial property-tax abatement for the new building.

"If we're fortunate to receive this project, that has been a topic of discussion," he said. "I'm not sure what we're going to end up at, but we are going to be amenable to as much as we can grant."

Documents distributed at the port board meeting also mentioned a state grant that, along with private money from investors, could round out the funding package.

JobsOhio, a private, statewide economic-development corporation that handles deals in their early stages, hasn't announced any incentives for the project. "The company is working with JobsOhio on state and JobsOhio assistance; however, there are no executed agreements at this time," Matt Englehart, a spokesman, wrote in an email.

Murray told members of the port's board that Amazon has garnered "tremendous" support from the local community, including the village and the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce. The company could make a decision on the project in 30 to 45 days, he said.

"We're glad the project is under consideration, and we're optimistic that it will be approved," Deb Janik, the chamber's senior vice president for real estate and business development, said during a phone call after the meeting. She wouldn't comment further.

The Plain Dealer reported in May that Seefried also has a deal to buy the shuttered Euclid Square Mall in Euclid for another large project - a 650,000-square-foot building that could be expanded to 1 million square feet for an unidentified tenant.

On Thursday, Riefe said the projects aren't mutually exclusive. The North Randall deal doesn't impact Seefried's plans in Euclid, where a rezoning of 70 or so acres from retail to industrial use is on track for a City Council vote in late August.

Jonathan Holody, Euclid's planning and development director, wouldn't comment on the potential use for the building, which Seefried has talked about opening late next year. Riefe also won't say whether the project is being designed for Amazon, which has a huge appetite for space and a penchant for secrecy when it comes to real estate.

But Amazon has opened multiple fulfillment centers in other markets, including the Columbus area. The company, based in Seattle, employs thousands of workers at two such facilities in Etna and Obetz, respectively east and south of Columbus.

Those buildings are 20 miles apart - roughly the same distance between the Euclid Square Mall site, east of Cleveland, and the former Randall Park Mall property.